1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a printing processing method, and a program therefor used in printing information according to a print instruction such as process, display, print, etc. (hereinafter also referred to as a “job ticket”), and more specifically used for the apparatus or system for performing a printing processing on the information according to a print instruction for control of the added information output capability in a printing environment holding a print instruction and print data.
2. Related Background Art
When a certain data to be printed (print data) is output, for example, the following methods (1) to (4) have conventionally been suggested as control methods for printing the data using an added information output capability such as an overlay output capability, etc.    (1) In the control method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-135524, etc., in a printer having an overlay output capability, the overlay output capability performs printout control based on a control command for the printer.    (2) In the control method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-202863, etc., print data (image data) is recorded in the internal memory of a printing device (printer) in advance, instruction data and personal data indicating an overlay are transmitted to the printing device, and the printing device combines the personal data and the specified image data and prints out the data.    (3) In the control method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-143668, etc., desired print data is transmitted to a printer by recording the settings of a watermark, a form overlay, etc. which are the functions of a printer driver in a host computer as a macro through a printer driver of the host computer, and executing the macro when necessary.    (4) Acrobat, an application of Adobe in the USA, enables an annotation to be added to a PDF document, and can switch back and forth between printing and no-printing of the annotation added to the document during printing. Additionally, a page number can be added to a PDF document.
Furthermore, there has recently been a system suggested for preparing a print instruction to document data to be printed (print data) as a job ticket independent of the document data, generating a printing job for appropriately correcting print data according to the print instruction described in the job ticket during printing, and performing printing processing. Then, the description contents of the job ticket have been standardized. Thus, the information about the printing layout (Nup), the number of print sets, etc. can currently be described in a job ticket in accordance with the JDF.
However, there have been the following problems (1) to (4) with the above-mentioned conventional control methods (1) to (4).
Problem (1)
In the control method (1) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-135524, etc., and the control method (2) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-202863, etc., a printing device has the function of overlaying image data (added information output capability), a print instruction is issued for the function, and a process is performed according to the print instruction as a temporary process. Therefore, it is not possible to perform printing processing, etc. by reusing the print data stored in the network.
Problem (2)
In the control method (3) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-143668, a watermark, a form overlay, etc. which are the functions of a printer driver is recorded as a macro through the printer driver of the host computer. Therefore, it is difficult to move the macro to, for example, another computer, server, etc. Furthermore, for example, printing processing cannot be performed by reusing print data stored in the network. Furthermore, when a macro is recorded, the settings of a printer driver are used, thereby, for example, disabling control of data in a page unit.
Problem (3)
One of the common problems with the control methods (1) to (3) is, for example, that it is necessary to embed in advance added information for corresponding print data in target print data when a print instruction and print data are communicated through a network, etc.
Problem (4)
In Acrobat of Adobe in the USA, an annotation is added to a document as described above, and the system can switch back and forth between printing and no-printing of the annotation added to the document during printing. However, the system can switch back and forth between printing and no-printing of the entire annotations added to the document. That is, the system cannot switch back and forth between printing a part of annotations and no-printing of another part of annotations. Furthermore, selecting printing/no-printing an annotation is performed by a user using a print dialog during printing. Therefore, printing or no-printing is to be selected each time printing processing is performed, thereby causing the problem of poor operability.
The above-mentioned added information refers to data such as an annotation, a watermark, a form overlay, variable data (data for printing data for clients in a specific position of printing such as direct mail, etc.), etc. It is hereinafter referred to as an “additional drawing object”.
Furthermore, when an additional drawing object is embedded in print data, there arise the following problems 1 to 4.    <1> When reprinting processing is performed using print data and a print instruction once handled in printing processing, the updating, changing, correcting processes, etc. cannot be performed exclusively on the additional drawing object embedded in the corresponding print data.    <2> When the updating, changing, correcting processes, etc. are being tried exclusively on an additional drawing object, an application in which a process of embedding an additional drawing object in image data is required, and restrictions are placed on the operating system (OS), etc. operated in the application. Therefore, printable environments (for example, an OS, a printer, a display, etc.) have been limited. As a result, for example, it is impossible to issue a print correction instruction from a mobile phone, etc.    <3> When print data and a print instruction are exclusively stored, it has been necessary to store an application in which an additional drawing object is embedded in print data.    <4> When print data refers to a large volume of printing as many as several thousand pages, it has been difficult to collectively update, change, correct, etc. an additional drawing object relating to the print data on each page.
Since the currently standardized method of describing a job ticket includes no instructions for added information, the method of embedding added information in the print data itself as described above is used. However, when added information is embedded in print data, the added information is included in the print data. Therefore, only an alternative selection is made such as whether or not an annotation is to be printed during printing as in the Acrobat application, thereby bringing a user an inconvenient method.